[concept] auto-rating random/shuffle media player.
 

This is kind of hard to explain, but I've been thinking about a new type of media player.
Currently, with your typical media player, you create a playlist out of your music, then either listen to it in order or shuffled.
I've also seen systems that allow for a "weighted" shuffle/random mode based on how you "rate" each piece of music(usually 1-5 stars).

With the first type of player, you tend to want to listen to a few songs more than the rest, and often go and click on another song(or the next button) while you play through a list.
With the second, you can let it know which songs you like more than others, but you have to rate all your songs for it to be effective, and this can take a while.

My idea is to have a weighted random playlist.
When you first make a playlist, each song has an equal chance of being the next song chosen. Every time a song is played through entirely, or manually selected, that song gets a slightly higher chance of being selected next time.
Every time a song is stopped in the middle by selecting a new song, or by pressing the "next" button, it gets a slightly less chance of being chosen, down to a base level.
In order to prevent a particular song from being chosen x times in a row, the application would keep a "rolling playlist" of the next 5 songs, and any new song selected would exclude those 5.

Of course, on top of the automatic weighting system a manual rating system could be added that gives each extra weight.
You might even be able to manually exclude tracks from automatic play, yet leave them in the list for manual selection if you want.

That all being said, would anyone be interested in something like this?

Do you think you would use it if it was implemented, or would you want something different as far as a weighted playlist goes?


Note: This is just a concept, I'm not planning on building it... yet. Nor am I asking for anyone else to build it.

-Rob

Re: [concept] auto-rating random/shuffle media player.
 

That sounds just great! I have 110 albums to play. There are a lot of songs I skip, and of course play fully, and it would be great when the player would remember that. I would certainly use that app!
All the features you mentioned are very handy indeed, I would use them all.

Re: [concept] auto-rating random/shuffle media player.
 

Great idea.